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Monday, December 10, 2012

The former Williams Clinic

What you see above is a Google Streetview of the former Williams
Clinic located at 408 E. Marquette Road. It was operated by a family of
Black doctors and it seemed they offered a number of services at this
clinic including a dentist and a pharmacy. In fact here's an obituary for one of the Williams brothers who originally founded the clinic.

Recently
I drove by and it hits me that the clinic is close the motel near
Marquette Road & King Drive that had been recently demolished thanks
to the activism of a local minster Corey Brooks - who incidentally was interested
in succeeding Jesse Jackson Jr. for the 2nd congressional district
seat. In driving by, on that motel property was a rendition of how the
new community center Brooks hope to build would look.

Then
it also hit me, I wonder if Brooks might find a way to thrown in some
health care services at his future community center. Indeed perhaps he
could find a way to take over the Williams Clinic property which is
currently a church.

I do wish to know what happened to
Williams Clinic. My dad used to patronize their practice back in the day
and continued to do so until it appears that the Williams family were
no longer involved in that business. I'm not entirely certain when they
closed but surely someone could fill in some details.

BTW,
this post is going into some unfamiliar territory as far as a
particular issue such as health care. Medical services are necessary no
matter your income level and this area around the former clinic is
considered a low-income area. The question to ask here is whether or not
it's possible for an independent clinic such as this could exist today.
Would the economics of health care today keep independent medical
professionals from operating?